Agri Vehicles Insurance from Greenlands

Author Topic: What breed pigs?  (Read 40646 times)

Rosemary

  • Joined Oct 2007
  • Barry, Angus, Scotland
    • The Accidental Smallholder
Re: What breed pigs?
« Reply #30 on: November 28, 2007, 07:30:47 pm »
Hi, Pebbles

We feed ours Allan and Page Rare and Traditional Breeds Weaner / Finisher pellets - each day, each pig gets 1lb for each month of age up to 6lb per day, split into two feeds and the snak-a-ball. Weigh it and don't be tempted to feed more - if you're feeding a lot of other stuff like potatoes, cut back on the pellets. They will always look and sound like they are starving to death!! If you feed too much, they'll just get fat. The Allen and Page stuff is GM free but not organic. It's never on the ground for more than a few minutes - we were told that they should clean up in 20 minutes or they are being overfed.

Our pigs have a snak-a-ball - there might be video on the site of them playing with it. It's a horse toy - put in pellets and as they push the ball, the pellets fall out one or two at a time. All ours have loved it - makes mealtimes last longer too. Not good in wet weather though - it gets full of mud and inevitably gets stuck in the wallow!

I was like you with our first weaners - I spent hours playing with them and watching them - I don't do it now. Enjoy the novelty.

Malc

  • Joined Oct 2007
    • The Edge of Nowhere
Re: What breed pigs?
« Reply #31 on: November 30, 2007, 12:51:46 pm »
The 20-minute rule seems to be just right. My weaners take about that long to clear up their food and there's never anything left.
They get a 50/50mix of sow/weaner pencils and barley (supplied by a local farm) in the morning and about 3/4lb of potatoes with blanched veg scraps in the evening.
They are kept indoors now as the wind and rain is harsh here on Orkney, but they have loads of space and some big stones and a tyre to play with and I throw in a couple of large wedges of turf twice a day which they enjoy ripping apart and munching their way through. The soil also makes sure they are not iron-deficient.

 

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